The dollar figures coming from the Environmental Protection Agency this week are staggering.
? Three new regulations announced in three days are estimated to cost almost $6 billion annually to implement.
? Settlements with private companies to clean up polluted sites totaling $73 million.
? Almost $850,000 in fines to polluters.
Business groups are always concerned about the costs of new regulations, but Tom Riordan, president and CEO of Neenhan Enterprises, said this week has made him feel like he’s on an amusement park ride.
“If this doesn’t give people in the broader economy cause for thought, three major regulations in three days … this is a race to the finish of the current term of the Obama administration,” he said.
“The EPA feels like they have to get everything from everybody’s wish list. They’re on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride from Walt Disney World to get as much regulation in as they possibly can.”
Much of the new regulatory cost comes from the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone released Thursday, which could cost $3.9 billion to implement nationally and $800,000 to implement in California, for a total of $4.7 billion. Industry groups call the new standard, restricting the amount of ozone in the atmosphere to 70 parts per billion, the costliest regulation in history.
The EPA also announced it was issuing a new rule regulating toxic wastewater from power plants that is expected to cost $480 million per year and a new regulation to improve air quality around refineries that would cost $63 million per year to implement.
The EPA wouldn’t say whether this week’s regulation blitz will lead to more as President Obama’s tenure winds down.
“Since 1970 we have cut harmful air pollution by about 70 percent while the U.S. economy has more than tripled,” said Melissa Harrison, spokeswoman for the EPA. “The dates for many of these rulemakings are set by the courts. We have met our deadlines while doing the necessary deliberation and outreach. These are important commitments to protect public health and we’ve been working on them diligently and openly.”
In particular, the tightening of the ozone rules sparked a chorus of criticism from business groups and Republican lawmakers Thursday, with House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, saying the agency “continues to destroy jobs, drag down our economy and impose its centralized standards.”
Bill Kovacs, vice president of regulatory affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the recent regulations will be almost impossible to follow when combined with the Clean Power Plan carbon emissions restrictions on power plants.
“These rules are massive, they’re multiple billions of dollars, they have an effect nationwide and they affect basically all the industries,” Kovacs said.
He said the message coming from Washington regulators is confusing to many businesses, along with state and local governments. They say it will be tough to comply with major regulations being announced so close together.
Kovacs said the Clean Power Plan sends the message to get rid of coal and invest more in natural gas and, not long after, the ozone rules restrict where new gas power plants can go because no new emissions can be put in those areas.
“The complexity is beyond imagination,” he said.
Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, said $2 trillion of regulations had been imposed on businesses in 2015 before this week. Not all of those are bad, he said, but it’s money that can’t go toward expanding operations.
“The costs are adding up and it’s becoming more and more difficult for manufacturing to compete in this country,” he said.
